FREUDIAN SLIP? Animas Spill Had to Happen

The Denver Post’s Bruce Finley chose an interesting phrase to describe a decision reached by Gov. Hickenlooper on abandoned mines in light of the EPA-caused Animas River spill:

“Make tackling these tens of thousands of ecological time bombs a priority.”

That’s pretty much what caused the disaster in the first place, the EPA tackled a time bomb and ignited it.

Now Hick wants to convene a water summit with several other states to talk about, uhm, mining, and the estimated $50 billion plus price tag to open every single abandoned mine in the region in order to shut it down.

That was the pitch of Finley’s article, but this also caught our attention:

The Interior Department “finds it unfortunate that an incident like the Gold King Mine spill had to happen to highlight an issue that land managers in both the federal and state governments have been grappling with for years,” Jewell testified at recent congressional budget hearings.

That’s right, Jewell actually said the spill “had to happen” to highlight the issue.

Freudian slip?

In a town like Washington where politicos and bureaucrats are ever so careful in parsing every word, we doubt it. It’s probably the most honest thing said in a congressional hearing in years.